I catch Jack watching out of the corner of my vision. Three months ago, when I had the misfortune of Lexi’s company, he tried talking to me after practice about not letting me get distracted bysome chick. He said the same thing all through high school and college whenever I was getting close to someone.
Lexi looks at the blonde beside her, and with the cattiest tone, says, “Hannah, why don’t you go somewhere else.”
Ah. So none of the names I guessed.
Right.
Well,Hannahnarrows her eyes at the second-worst human being in this building, suddenly acting like the definition of sobriety. Then she turns to me, fluttering her lashes like I might save her, and goes up on her tiptoes to whisper, “Call me if you’re sick of her.”
“Fucking hell,” Mitchell mutters.
Violated isn’t an adequate enough description for how I feel when she slips her hand into the pocket of my trousers to leave me with her unwanted parting gift.
Only two people are allowed to touch me in an unprofessional capacity, and it sure as fuck isn’t either of these two women.
Actually, fuck the press.
I’m already paying a publicist. I might as well get my money’s worth.
I grip Hannah’s wrist with the tip of my thumb and forefinger, and throw her hand aside, sending the piece of paper flying into the unknown. Let someone else call her.
“I’m not desperate enough right now,” I say. Then I do the same to Lexi’s scrawny hand. “This is the third time I’ve asked you to keep your hands to yourself. If I have to tell you a fourth, I’m certain The Herald will be very interested to hear that you’re selling ecstasy to minors.”
Lexi snaps her hand away, and because she’s a two-headed snake, I barely notice her face fall before she fixes it with her winning, honeyed smile. “You’ll change your mind one day, Duval.”
“Right,” I deadpan. I look at both women. “Are we done here, or do you need me to say in simpler terms that I’m not interested?”
Lexi acts first, linking her arm with Hannah’s, suddenly her bestie.Snake. “Come on, I think I saw Simon doing shots.”
Hannah glares at me but follows her fake friend. They’ll come crawling back in a month. I glower as Mitchell buckles over with laughter. The fucker.
“Charmer.” He takes a swig of his beer, tacky strobe lights reflecting off the bottle. “It’s a wonder you haven’t landed a woman.”
My internal temperature drops, and I have to remind myself that I tolerate Mitchell, and my beloved kin wouldn’t take too kindly to me murdering him. “Says the one who started dating my sister when we barely knew how to drive—I still haven’t forgiven you for that, by the way.”
He holds up his hands in surrender.
“I need a shower to wash off the smell of hairspray and bad perfume.” I look down at the orange stain on what was once a perfectly white shirt.Fucking fake tan.“Fantastic. It looks like I’ll be stopping to get bleach on the way home.”
“For ingestion or cleaning?”
“Both, should the mood take me.”
“Here I was thinking that you’d be in better spirits from being hit by Cupid.”
I grind my molars. “The arrow didn’t quite land between my eyes.”
“Really? You’ve already been acting stupid. Must be all the times you’ve hit your head then.”
He chuckles at my glare.
I’ve seen what Mitchell does for my sister. Once upon a time, I thought there was no way I’d show up to a game with little specks of glitter on my face because I got dragged to some girly pop concert the night before.
I’ve been doing far stupider shit lately.
Mitchell’s brows knit when his eyes catch on my chest. “Since when do you wear crystal necklaces?”
It’s a tiger’s eye.I’m borrowing it from her since she’s been secretly borrowing things from me. I don’t wear it nearly as often as I’d like because of how flimsy the black rope is.
